Meeting in the Moonlight

II (Part 1)

That morning had not gone quite as well as planned. Neither had the previous morning. Neither had the rest of the week.

Their train bringing them to London was over two hours late on Tuesday. Once they arrived - finally, a total of five hours behind their expected time – they found their house (let only while they were staying in town) empty and cold. None of their belongings which had been sent down the previous day were anywhere to be seen. Wednesday morning had also been sub-par: the 'well-stocked' pantry had all but rotten and was made worse when a letter arrived saying that their luggage had been sent to the wrong town and would not be here until Friday afternoon at the latest.

Wilhelmina had also been less than pleased: the pianoforte was more like a pianofiacco, her rooms were decidedly colder than all the others and so to keep warm she had slept in the same room as him, there was of course the luggage situation, and no staff had arrived until the Thursday, so they both had to make do with whatever they could cook, stale bread and hard cheese.

So, here they were, one hour before they had to leave for his sister's first official London society ball, with still no sign of their belongings. He wasn't disappointed that they might not be able to attend – unlike Wilhelmina who had worn down the carpet in the drawing room with her incessant pacing – he had important things in those chests: documents, business proposals and ledgers from the mill so he could at least get some work done while in Town.

None of this would have happened if they had never left home.

"Well?" His sister called down from the top of the stairs. "What do you think?" She spread her arms and swished her skirts.

They had decided to go and buy some temporary clothes until their own arrived. Elijah would have been content with one simple suit, but Mina had been adamant that he needed at least four: for the day and a more elegant suit for the ball. In the end, they had returned home having purchased only two suits for him – the more elegant one arriving Friday afternoon, taking more time to better tailor it – while Mina had walked away with three new day dresses, one walking dress and a choice of two evening gowns.

He indulged her too much sometimes.

He stared up at her and nodded.

"Surely you could do better than that! Please, Elijah, I don't know which to wear. This is important." He knew how important tonight was for her. It was her first appearance in society as a young woman. He recalled their previous conversation a month ago; she argued passionately that she needed to find a husband.

"There are no suitable gentlemen here!" she had said.

"I will try the yellow one on again then." She padded back to her room.

The clock at the end of the hall ticked away. She returned half an hour later, "What about this one?" He said nothing to her, they had been doing this for the last two hours. "Oh, maybe I should put the blue one-"

"No!" He shouted up to her, "No, you look fine. We will be late if we don't go now."

"Very well," Lifting her skirts, she skipped giddily down the staircase, "Have our things arrived yet?"

"Not yet." He sighed in frustration, knowing that there was nothing he could do about it tonight.

"Cheer up, this will be fun. You'll see!"

He doubted that would be true. He doubted that very much. The last thing he wanted to be doing was partaking in a social affair – he had luggage to find, business to attend to, deals to make. He did not want to spend a night striking up pointless conversations with the gentlemen and women of London. He had been to Town several times before, mostly for business, but it was all the same. Upon hearing his accent, the conversation turned to questions about where he was from, what he does, and general speculations of things they had no real knowledge of.